Derbyshire's Twenty20 Cup campaign all over as Leics take the spoils

GLOOM should be the abiding Derbyshire memory of this Twenty20 Cup campaign.

It began in gloomy darkness at the Riverside, ended in more of the same at Grace Road and too much of what happened in between was pretty gloomy as well.

Apart from that, it's been great fun.

The Phantoms lost by 23 runs to Leicestershire yesterday in their final group match in a contest that did not even have the stigma of avoiding bottom place to play for.

The Foxes, having lost their first seven games, already had that unwanted honour in the bag but they finished with an unbeaten streak of two wins and a rained-off no-result.

It was James Allenby's one-man show that proved the big difference between the sides. The Australian all-rounder gave the Leicestershire innings a late thrust with his unbeaten 50 before he tore through the Derbyshire batting order with 5-27 in his four overs.

Earlier in the group stages, Allenby took another five wickets against Lancashire, which included four wickets in four balls. The Foxes lost that match but Derbyshire's effort was far too feeble to force a repeat show here.

Graham Wagg, standing in as captain in the absence of Rikki Clarke, put the home side in after winning the toss but he was partly responsible for allowing the Foxes to get off to a good start as a poor third over from him went for 15 to send them to 51-0 after six.

Leicestershire had advanced to 63-0 at the end of the eighth but lost both openers in successive balls, with Jacques do Toit caught at deep midwicket by Dominic Telo for 25 and then Boetha Dippenaar was neatly stumped down the leg side by Jamie Pipe for 35.

Jon Clare was the bowler and this was to be the youngster's best performance in the Twenty20 Cup by some way.

In five previous games, he had bowled only 4.5 overs but he got through his full four-over stint here and finished with a commendable 2-20.

Derbyshire began to put on the squeeze, with Nayan Doshi doing his usual good job at the other end from Clare.

The left-arm spinner was to also finish with 2-20 from four overs, as James Taylor top-edged a sweep and Paul Nixon was bowled.

But Allenby and Tom New put on 50 in less than six overs and Allenby completed his half-century off the final ball. He had faced only 31 balls and hit three fours and three sixes.

Still, 149-5 was no more than a respectable total.

The light was fading badly as Telo and Greg Smith went out to start the reply and they did well, adding 45 in six overs.

Telo looked very sharp and moved on to 33, his best in the competition, off 26 balls with four fours and a six but his night was to end in frustration again.

He chased a wide ball from Nadeem Malik, the last delivery of the sixth over, and chopped it on to his stumps. Had he stayed for three or four more overs, it might have been a different story.

Too much of the rest of the Derbyshire innings promised but did not deliver.

Wavell Hinds and Jamie Pipe were both out for six, while Smith and Dan Birch took far too long to advance to meagre returns of 16 and 17.

When Wagg was seventh out, the game was slipping out of Derbyshire's reach and with it went all thoughts of a happy ending to the Twenty20 Cup.